Muhammad

Muhammad was born in 570 A.D. in Mecca, a city by the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia. Muhammad's father died on a trading trip just a week or two before his birth. After Muhammad was born, his mother sent him to live with a nurse in the desert. This was a common practice of the time, based on the belief that the desert air was healthier. The nurse sent Muhammad back to his mother after about 2 years. When he was 5 Muhammad started having seizures. His mother, thinking that the city air was causing the seizures sent Muhammad back to the nurse. While Muhammad was away his mother died on a trading trip. He was then sent to live with his grandfather, who died 2 years later. When Muhammad was about 8 years old, he moved in with his uncle, Abu Talib. At the age of 12, Muhammad started going on trading trips to Damascus with his uncle, but he was usually in Mecca and shepherding sheep and goats. Later in his life, Muhammad said “Even such as I used to gather, feeding the flocks in the valley of Mecca: and truly no prophet hath been raised up but first he hath done the work of a shepherd.”

When Muhammad was 25, he started working with a merchant woman named Khadija. One day when they were coming home from a trading trip she offered to marry him. He accepted even though she was 40 years old. Different historical accounts tell of them having from 5 to 8 kids. Both sons died during infancy, but the daughters lived. Khadijah died 15 years later when Muhammad was 40. Muhammad married his second wife a short time later. At this time Muhammad thought he could sense the one true religion and started meditating in caves around Mecca. This is when he claims to have spoken to Allah and written the Quran. Some Muslims claim that Muhammad couldn't write, which would make his writing the Quran a miracle that only Allah could achieve

Muhammad also claimed that he spoke to Allah in his dreams. It is said that Muhammad was sometimes suicidal because he thought these dreams were coming from evil spirits, but his wife convinced him that he was indeed a true prophet of Allah. Muhammad says that in one of these troubling dreams the angel Gabriel spoke to him and said, "O Muhammad, thou who art the Prophet of the lord, I am Gabriel". This caused him to start preaching Islam. Soon people started converting to Islam.

Ten years after Islam was created Muhammad's second wife died. Soon he married a widow and then a 7-year-old girl. He ended up marrying 15 women in total, most of them for political reasons. Muhammad taught that Muslims were only allowed 4 wives, but he made an exception for himself.

Muhammad moved to a nearby village called Medina, where Islam spread rapidly. There he had a great house of worship, mosque, built. Then Muhammad started a series of “holy wars”, or “jihad” mostly against Christians. Historical accounts indicate that anyone who was captured was given the options to, accept Islam, pay tribute, or die by the sword. Most of the captives were killed. During the period, Muslims made the conquered Christian churches in to mosques.

Muhammad started teaching that dying for Islam was of the highest honor and that if one did die for Islam he would go to paradise and receive 72 virgins.

In one of these “jihads”, Zainab, Muhammad's ex-wife, lost her father, husband, and son in battle. Seeking revenge Zainab poisoned Muhammad's dinner. He spit the food out before it killed him, but it did end up killing him later on at the age of 54 in the year 634 A.D.

Muslims believe that it is a disgrace to draw a face of Muhammad or Allah so you will never find a portrait of Muhammad that is made by a Muslim artist. It is also thought of as a disgrace to name an inanimate object Muhammad. A recent example of this is a teacher who was arrested in a Muslim country for letting the class name a teddy bear Muhammad. Muhammad is remembered for being the founder of Islam on earth, and the earthly prophet of Allah. He preached about Islam and told people that Allah was the one and only God. He also preached that dying for Islam was of the highest honor and that anyone who died for Islam would go to paradise and be rewarded.